Many production and manufacturing operations use an assembly-line process wherein the product or article is sequentially moved in a steplike manner between adjacent working stations. These assembly-line processes utilize various types of conveyors for accomplishing the intermittent steplike movement of the article. While many different types of conveyors are commonly utilized, such as powered accumulating-type roller conveyors, chain conveyors and the like, nevertheless many of the conventionally utilized conveyors have possessed various disadvantages when considered for use under some assembly-line conditions. For example, many of the known conveyors are both structurally and operationally complex, and hence expensive to purchase and maintain. Other conveyors are undesirable as to their space requirements, such as by requiring a rather large structural frame so that the conveyor bed is hence at an undesirably high elevation, or requiring either overhead or below-floor level supports which thus make initial installation and assembly of the conveyor extremely difficult and at the same time prevent efficient movement and/or modification of the conveyor system.
The present invention thus relates to an improved oscillating conveyor which permits accumulating thereon, which conveyor is particularly desirable for use with an assembly-line process while overcoming the disadvantages and undesirable restrictions associated with many of the conventional conveyors now being utilized, as explained above.
The improved conveyor of this invention is particularly desirable for assembly-line processes since the conveyor is extremely simple both structurally and operationally, and due to its oscillating movement, permits the efficient intermittent or steplike transfer of articles or product along the conveyor for movement between adjacent working stations. This improved conveyor is particularly advantageous inasmuch as it can be constructed with an extremely low profile, such as in the order of several inches, while at the same time it can efficiently handle not only light loads but also extremely heavy loads (particularly palletized loads) in the order of several thousand pounds. This conveyor can additionally be positioned directly on any available support surface, such as directly on a floor, without requiring any special preparation of the floor and without requiring any overhead or below-floor level supports. The conveyor can thus be easily installed and readily moved about as desired, and the low profile of the conveyor enables it to occupy a minimum space so that the elevation of the support bed defined by the conveyor can be easily disposed at a desired working level.
The improved oscillating conveyor of the present invention, because of its extremely low profile coupled with its structural and operational simplicity, is also highly desirable for incorporation into a storage rack system of the "first in-first out" type. Such storage rack systems, which conventionally provide several horizontally adjacent bays each containing a plurality of elongated conveyors stacked vertically one above the other, have conventionally utilized either a powered roller conveyor or an inclined gravity-type roller conveyor. The former is undesirable due to the overall complexities involved in providing such a large number of powered systems, inasmuch as the powered rollers must be positioned throughout the complete conveyor length. The latter system, namely the inclined gravity roller conveyor, while less complex from the drive standpoint, is nevertheless undesirable due to the necessity of having to provide braking rollers or suitable stops associated with the conveyor. Also, the required incline of the individual conveyors results in the inlet end of each conveyor being substantially higher than the outlet end when the conveyor extends over substantial distances. This thus restricts the length of such conveyors or, in the alternative, results in the inlet end of the uppermost conveyor being undesirably high, and hence this factor and/or the available building height hence further restricts either the usable length of the conveyor and/or the number of conveyors which can be successfully vertically stacked one above the other.
The conveyor of the present invention is also highly desirable for use in storage racks of the above-described type, since its extremely low profile coupled with an extremely simple drive mechanism, and the fact that the conveyor extends horizontally and does not require any incline or slope, thus permits this improved conveyor to be successfully and efficiently utilized in a storage rack system while overcoming the numerous disadvantages and limitations experienced with conventional storage rack systems, as explained above.
In the conveyor of this invention, there is provided an elongated low-profile frame having wheels thereon which rollingly support the frame on any suitable support surface, such as a floor. A plurality of live conveyor rolls are rotatably supported on the frame at uniform intervals therealong, which rolls define a support plane for an object or article to be conveyed. A suitable drive device, such as a fluid pressure cylinder, is connected to the support frame to thereby cause it, and the rollers mounted thereon, to be horizontally oscillated back and forth in the elongated direction thereof through a stroke of predetermined length. A plurality of stop members are mounted at closely spaced intervals along the length of the conveyor, which stop members are mounted directly on any adjacent stationary support, such as the floor. The stop members permit one-way movement of the objects or articles along the conveyor, and in one embodiment the stop members are pivotally mounted so as to swing downwardly to enable the articles or objects to pass thereover, with the individual stop members being biased back into an upright position whereby they project into the path of movement of the objects or articles, thereby preventing backward movement of the individual objects or articles. When the frame is moved forwardly by the drive, the rollers remain substantially nonrotatable and hence move the articles forwardly through a predetermined step, during which forward movement the stop members are swung downwardly so as to permit the articles to pass thereover. During the rearward stroke of the support frame, the stop members which are located between articles have already swung upwardly into their original positions and hence engage the articles and prevent their rearward movement, whereby the rollers associated with the conveyor thus freely rotate beneath the article as the conveyor frame is being moved on its backward or retraction stroke. Thus, as the conveyor is reciprocated back and forth, the articles or objects are advanced in an intermittent steplike manner throughout the length of the conveyor.
While the attached drawings illustrate what is presently contemplated as a preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be appreciated that the present invention can also be incorporated into other desirable embodiments which fall within the scope of the invention but are not illustrated by the drawings. Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons familiar with conveyors upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.